


The Fruit Trees

by hunters_retreat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boys in Space, First Kiss, M/M, post-season 6, pre-season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 15:27:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15710010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: It would be nice to bring something back to the lions, but Keith was happy to just be there with Shiro.





	The Fruit Trees

**Author's Note:**

> This is the short little thing I was writing on 08/09 as I waited for midnight and the new season so I could binge watch :P This is all based on what I knew after Season 6 and I just wanted to write a little fic about them traveling in space. Hope you enjoy! Oh, also, I named the space wolf and it was a funny bit so I didn’t change anything about it either. :P

They’d been cooped up for weeks.  Supplies were low and morale was lower so they all agreed it was time to take a breather from the lions and get some packed dirt under their feet.  They landed their lions at the first Human-Altean friendly environment they could find.  The planet was uninhabited as far as their sensors could tell so each team took off with a device that could tell them if something was edible and they went in search of fresh supplies and fresher air.

Lance and Allura had taken off to the east, Hunk and Pidge took Coran to the west, and Krolia and Romelle went south.  Which left Keith and Shiro, along with the wolf, to take the north.

The plan was to forage for the day, sleep under the stars, then head out in the morning after they’d had their breakfast of whatever they could make from their finds.  

Keith and Shiro were unsuccessful most of the morning.  They walked through field after field of wild grass but nothing edible was on the horizon.

That suited Keith just fine. Even if they didn’t find food here they knew of two planets that they should be able to get to that had supplies they could replenish at.  They were in no fear of starving.

It would be nice to bring something back to the lions, but Keith was happy to just be there with Shiro.

Having him underfoot in Black was about the best thing that had ever happened to him, because he didn’t honestly think he’d have been able to handle it if Shiro were any further away. Sure, they’d created ‘rooms’ in the storage area with some careful rearranging of boxes and crates but they were still together all the time.  

And Keith had the two people he loved most in the Universe in the same place.  

Two years with his mother had given a comfortability between them that Keith didn’t think they’d have if it hadn’t been forced.  The close proximity with Krolia and Shiro on this journey did the same for them. Keith had woken up more than once to find Shiro flying Black with his mother speaking softly as she sat close by his knee.  It awoke something in him he’d never expected.

He loved Shiro.  More than anything else.  He didn’t know if he could even conceive of loving anything this much.  He played it off for Shiro when it got too close - laughing or crying - the word brother always settled the line back to safe and Keith never edged closer.

But seeing Krolia and Shiro banter back and forth, it was too much like getting her approval. Something he’d have damned in his childhood, something he’d have killed for if he’d have ever had a chance for it.

“Where exactly did your wolf go?” Shiro asked.

“Pounce?  Who knows.”

“That doesn’t worry you?”

“He’ll teleport back when he wants,” Keith explained.

“Okay, but I want the truth now.  Why did you name him Pounce?”

Keith opened his mouth but right as he was about to answer he heard the telltale signs of Pounce’s return and he braced himself.  

Because the damn thing landed right in front of him and pounced on him immediately.  Keith fell back no matter how hard he’d tried to prepare for it – he’d still never managed to stay upright when the wolf did this – and landed hard with Pounce on top of him.

“Ugh.  Pounce.”

Shiro laughed but petted the wolf behind his ears as he offered Keith a hand up.  Pounce moved off him and when Keith was upright he pushed his snout into Keith’s hand.  There was something round in it and Keith took it from him.

“Is that some kind of fruit?” Shiro asked from over his shoulder.

Keith pulled out the device they’d been given and checked it.  “Looks like.  Were you foraging ahead for us, Pounce?”

The wolf ran ahead and turned to wait for them.  

“Looks like we should have asked him where the food stash was,” Shiro said.

Keith smiled up at him, but they followed in companionable silence until they arrived at the fruit tree Pounce had found.  It was ten minutes down a path that Keith would probably have never seen and there was a meadow full of them.

“Wow.  If no one else is successful at least we found these,” Keith said.

“We should probably try it to see if they’re any good before we collect too many,” Shiro suggested.

Keith held a red fruit out to Shiro and the older man smiled as he took it.  He took a bite and Keith watched as juice dribbled down Shiro’s chin. Shiro laughed as he wiped it away with his hand.  “It’s like a peach,” he said as he offered it to Keith.  “Just without the fuzzy skin.”

Keith took the offering and had the same problem Shiro did.  The fruit was juicy and sweet and he relished the taste of the fresh fruit. He caught Shiro watching him before the other Paladin grabbed another one and began to eat it.  Keith sat in the grass under the tree and ate the fruit quickly.  When Shiro joined him, legs pressed together from hip to knee, he handed another one to Keith.  

“Thanks.”

“We could take these seeds and try to grow them on the way home.  Hunk would love to be able to harvest these on the ship.”

“Red fruit cobbler,” Keith said with a sigh.  “With fresh ice cream.”

“Think we could get some cherries to grow on the ship?”

“Cherry pie?” Keith asked.

Shiro smiled.  “You know it.”

And Keith did.  There had been plenty of nights when they’d snuck out of the Garrison and Shiro had driven them to an all night diner. They’d talked classes and simulations and missions, whatever either of them needed to get off their chests, and eat dessert until the open desert called them and they’d ride until they had no choice but to return.  They were the best memories Keith had of his time at the Garrison.

A sharp flash of light lit the sky, followed by a heavy crash.  With no warning, rain fell down in heavy drops.

They moved closer to the trunk of the tree and Pounce came to curl up under it.  They sat like that for a minute, but Shiro got up and walked to the edge of the tree and held his hand out.  The rain fell into his palm and without warning, Shiro began to undo his armor.

“Shiro?”

Shiro didn’t say anything, but when his armor was gone, he stepped out into the rain.  He turned slowly and stopped when he was facing Keith, but his eyes were closed and his head was tilted up towards the sky.  

Keith watched in fascination as Shiro raised his hands and ran it through his white hair.  When he opened his eyes and looked at Keith there was nothing but joy there.  Like the rain had washed away the weariness of their travels and given him a new life.

He held a hand out to Keith. “Please,” was all he said.

He knew what Shiro wanted so he didn’t wait.  He stood and stripped out of his armor as well.  He was drenched as soon as he stepped beyond the tree but he took Shiro’s hand anyway.  And when Shiro pulled him closer, he tilted his head up.

Not to the sky.  But to Shiro.

When their lips touched for the first time, it was on a foreign world but a familiar plain. Their lips tasted like peach but were stained red from the juice.  They were tired and beaten down, but the rain had washed away the edge and reminded them that there was still hope.

In the rain, Keith opened to Shiro and Shiro held him close.  They made love under the strange red fruit trees to the sound of the falling rain and the knowledge that they were safe there, with one another.

And when the rain finally stopped, Shiro kissed him one more time.  Keith smiled at his lover and leaned up on one elbow over him.  “It’s about time,” he teased.  Because Keith had loved Shiro from afar for a long time. Shiro’s feelings for Keith had come a long way around.

“Yeah, it really is,” he pulled Keith back to his lips and smiled against them.  “I love you, Keith.”

Keith felt his own lips pull into a smile.  “I love you too, Shiro.”

Keith set his head on Shiro’s shoulder and fell into a quiet, restful sleep.

 

Much to the team’s horror when they came to find them three hours later, still naked under the fruit tree.


End file.
